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Arabic hyped up vs. Persian and Turkish? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5197 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 41 of 71 27 September 2010 at 8:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Ari!
I can see why the number of countries is arguably not a good way to define usefulness. I suppose it depends on why you learn language. I study language to expose myself to new ways of life, and in that respect, I suppose the number of "cultures" would be a better guage of usefulness. For me, I can't completely discount the number of countries, though. I honestly do think that Mandarin would be more appealing to me if Mandarin-speaking China broke up into several smaller countries. Is that bad? Regardless of how you define usefulness, calculating the number of cultures would be a far more messy and contentious business than counting the number of countries! Edited by nebojats on 27 September 2010 at 9:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6784 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 42 of 71 27 September 2010 at 11:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I get confused when people mention Persian. Is Persian the same as Farsi? Or is it some
kind of historical ancestor? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 43 of 71 27 September 2010 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
That surprises me, as Yakut, though Turkic, is geographically isolated from the other Turkic languages. It is believed that the ancestors of the Yakuts migrated from Central Asia hundreds of years ago. Since they now live in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, it must have been quite a motivation they had. Generally speaking, the Turkic languages are relatively close to each other, though I doubt whether someone from Istanbul could really understand an Uygur from Urumqi. Edited by William Camden on 28 September 2010 at 4:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6950 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 45 of 71 27 September 2010 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is also true of Persian, maybe even to a greater extent than Arabic. Persian was the Rome of the East during the time of the Sassanid empire. I wouldn't be surprised to hear something similar about Turkish, though I don't know much about it myself.
Really? Again, I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject, but I would've said 'In terms of literary tradition, Persian is a powerhouse, and I think leaves Arabic and Turkic language in the dust.' Arabic has the Koran and 1001 nights, but beyond that I think is not particularly known for its literary tradition. I'm not try to start an argument or trivialize the Arabic world's contributions, but I think you might be exaggerating its historical importance relative to Persian and Turkish. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5197 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 46 of 71 27 September 2010 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Lucky Charms, thanks for reigning in my exaggeration. I'm also not knowledgeable on the subject. During college, Arabic scholars came up again and again, but I don't recall any Persians. But that's hardly something to point to for evidence... :) I retract my "in the dust" statement! Edited by nebojats on 27 September 2010 at 4:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5652 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 47 of 71 27 September 2010 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There's a vast amount of literature in Persian (aka Farsi). We concentrate on the classics of the 11-15th century CE by Ferdowsi, Rumi, Hafez, Sa'adi, Khayyam, Jami, Nezami, and Gorgani. And, of course, there are plenty of more modern works, too, but I'm less familiar with them. Keep in mind, too, that many writers in Arabic were actually Persians,
I'm not as familiar with the Arabic classics. We've been reading 1001 Nights for the last year, as our way of learning Arabic. It's great for that purpose. My impression is that there's plenty to read in Arabic, though, both classical and modern. Once you get on the inside of such significant languages and cultures, and I'm sure this would also apply to Turkish, you'll find lifetimes of endeavor and enjoyment. There's never any telling which book or poem or conversation will change your life, or what that change will consist of, but you will certainly change and your journey may become richer in unimagined ways. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6143 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 48 of 71 28 September 2010 at 12:04am | IP Logged | |||||
I think this is a really common misconception. Persian is the true "English" name of the language, borrowed originally from the Greek word a long time ago, while Farsi is an Arabic rendering of the original name for the language, Parsi. Arabic doesn't have a 'p' sound, so they substituted an 'f.' In modern Persian they now call the language Farsi (فارسى), so using that term in English is almost like calling German "Deutsch" while speaking English (although it is still correct to call it Farsi in English, while it is not correct to call German "Deutsch" in English). A slight difference between the terms Persian and Farsi is that the former has a somewhat broader meaning and can refer to all of the Persian languages/dialects spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan (Persian/Farsi, Dari, Tajik) while Farsi refers just to Iranian Persian. Of course, if you really mean Dari or Tajik you should just say so (in my opinion, but other people might not know what those are). 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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